Dungy: 'MNF' intro racially offensive


November 17, 2004
If ABC hoped to generate a little bit more buzz for ``Monday Night Football'' and ``Desperate Housewives,'' its steamy intro to the Dallas-Philadelphia game sure did the trick.

Two days after the network aired the segment featuring Eagles star receiver Terrell Owens and actress Nicollette Sheridan, coaches and players were still talking about it.

Reaction ranged from amusement to anger. Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy found it racially offensive.

ADVERTISEMENT


``To me that's the first thing I thought of as an African-American,'' Dungy said Wednesday.

``I think it's stereotypical in looking at the players, and on the heels of the Kobe Bryant incident I think it's very insensitive. I don't think that they would have had Bill Parcells or Andy Reid or one of the owners involved in that,'' he added, a reference to the coaches in the game.

ABC's intro showed Sheridan wearing only a towel and provocatively asking Owens to skip the game for her as the two stood alone in a locker room. She drops the towel and jumps into Owens' arms. Owens is black and Sheridan is white.

``If that's what we have to do to get ratings, I'd rather not get them,'' Dungy said. ``I realize that ratings pays us in this league, but if that's what we have to do, I'm willing to take a pay cut.''

Philadelphia quarterback Donovan McNabb wasn't quite as vocal, saying he didn't find the segment offensive and believed people were overreacting. (Owens wasn't at practice Wednesday, excused for what the team said were personal reasons.)

``Some people do different things,'' McNabb said. ``Not saying that my wife would allow me to do that, but it's just something that was done, and you move on.''

Michael Powell, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, had a different view, questioning ABC's judgment in airing the scene.

``I wonder if Walt Disney would be proud,'' he said.

ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co. The FCC will review complaints and decide whether or not to open an investigation that could result in a fine against the network.

``It would seem to me that while we get a lot of broadcasting companies complaining about indecency enforcement, they seem to be continuing to be willing to keep the issue at the forefront, keep it hot and steamy in order to get financial gains and the free advertising it provides,'' Powell told CNBC.

The segment drew complaints from viewers and the NFL. ABC Sports apologized for using the introduction to promote its show, ``Desperate Housewives.'' Dungy's comment, however, was the first that mentioned race. He also said the segment played off stereotypes of athletes.

``That athletes are sexual predators and that that stuff is more important than what's going on on the field. That a guy was more concerned with that than the game, that's a terrible message to send,'' Dungy said. ``I'm particularly sensitive to that. It could have been any player and I would have been outraged, but being an African-American, it particularly hurt me.''

A decade ago Dungy was outspoken about the lack of black coaches in the NFL. There are currently five, including Dungy and Lovie Smith, whose Bears will face Dungy's Colts on Sunday.

``I thought it was in bad taste also,'' Smith said. ``You could say that it was pretty close to pornographic, so any time that happens on prime time, something is wrong.''

But Smith didn't find it racially offensive.

``I really can't go that far,'' he said. ``I saw a naked lady with an athlete, period. Black, white, that doesn't really matter an awful lot to me.''

Dungy said ABC had asked the Colts, who played on Monday night last week, ``to do some things I thought would make our players look a little bit silly (although) nothing like that.''

``We kind of declined,'' he said.

Some players were also shocked.

``My mouth dropped when I saw that,'' said Washington tight end Mike Sellers, who was watching the game with his wife. ``I said, 'Did they actually plan this on TV?'''

But at least one of his teammates wasn't bothered.

``I thought it was kind of cool, myself,'' linebacker Marcus Washington said. ``I enjoyed the skit.''

Absolutely ridiculous. I think Dungy is being racist by calling it racist. Whether the skit was appropriate or not, doesn't it say something that ABC is racially VERY tolerant by showing an interracial 'couple'?

Lighten up Dungy

Everything, to Dungy, is racially offensive.

We're all racist for even talking about it...

I can't say that I agree with Dungy here, but is he not correct that there is a stereotype that all black men wanna do is get their hands on white wimmens, a stereotype that this skit reinforces?

Personally, I think this was probably the farthest thing from the minds of the creators of the sketch, who were likely just focusing on using the biggest personality on either team to promote ABC's show.

All men (straight men...I can't believe I have to clarify) want to get their hands on hot wimmins.

It doesn't matter if they are white, black, asian, latino, or aliens from outerspace. If they are hot, we want 'em.

Nicolette Sheridan is almost past hot, but most of us still want to poke her.

An excellent point.

Is Dungy even black???

Agreed, you can't please EVERYBODY ALL THE TIME.. What do you think was going on in Dungys head when he saw it? "Next time theres a chick in only a towel in the locker room "I" will be the last one out"

I agree that Dungy's apparent race baiting is stupid. I'd rather see him channel that anger towards his defense, which would have difficulty stopping a charging two-year-old.

My wife's better looking than she is, so that skit pretty much failed to turn me on.

Excellent point.

I know some of us pleabs have had to download it and watch it over and over instead of our normal downloads in order to get our jollies...but now that wasn't really my point.

It merely was that IMHO things have gone past "Black men want white women because it's a status symbol" to "Men like hot women. Race is relatively unimportant."

for you and your wife, though!!

Gone past that for most of us, but apparently not for Tony Dungy.

Where's Spain? I figured he'd have a field day with this one.

I think they should have done the commercial in a more "racially harmonious way"

like maybe having David Akers in the locker room being pursued by Oprah wearing only a towel...

Does anyone have a link to the video? I haven't seen this yet and I need to see how offensive it is............

um, i think you have it reversed, the stereotype is that of white women wanting black men. and whether the skit creators were aiming at it or not, there is a culturely historical stereotype of the big black beastly man with a huge _, that white women want. you don't have to dig to deeply in the history books to see how pervasive this ideology has been in our history. many courts excused white men for having sex with black women but condemn white women for having sex with black men. in "bowling for columbine", Moore comments on this fear that white men have that "thier" white women want to be with black men.

anyhow, i'm not commenting on whether this skit was racial or not, just correcting your assertion.

I didn't realize that Michael "Fat Ass" Moore is a credible source of information.

i think you guys are over playing the racial ascept of dungy's remarks. he didn't call the creators of the skit or the abc brass racist. he said that as an african american he felt offended by comerical. he stating there is a stereotype of the big black athlete having sex with white women and this skit played off that stereotype. i think it's obvious this stereotype does exist and that the skit did play off it. And this stereotype is racial. you don't hear about big white athletes sleeping with white or black women. you rarely see that in movies or tv shows (think Playmakers on ESPN). What you always see is the black athlete with white women. dungy was speaking out against that, and rightfully so. he also spoke out about the wrong message that the skit sent out, that athletes care more about sex than helping their team. whether you believe that be true or not, it's not the message that the nfl or it's coaches want send out to its fan base.

Why would you correct a valid assertion, sir? There is also a sterotype that black men when successful target blonde trophy white woman. Very old and real sterotype.

This was documented in ESPNs film on the OJ case....

because it's not a valid assertion, sir. some black men do target white women as symbol of success, just like some move to white neihborhoods and associate with white people for the same reason. that's a culture truism.

it's in the MNF thread... (pg. 6)

I think Dungy is being misquoted. What he was saying is that he didn't like the way it was stereotyping the black athlete in a lot of ways. However, if you read what he said before that he ripped ABC for putting that type of trash on while he was sitting with his 12 year old kid. He said if that is what Monday Night is about, I don't want the Colts on Monday night. I don't know that Dungy ever said anything about interracial relationships, which people seemed to pick up on.

Thats what I said. It was also viewed by many in that regard, using that "truism".Which, BTW, I still call a sterotype..

Blah, blah, blah. Wake me up once the game starts.

Couldn't agree with you more. This topic is old already.

how can people view in that regard? It clear that it's the woman that is chasing the guy in this click, not the otherway around.

Thankx..........